The Peshawari chappal is a leather sandal worn in parts of Pakistan. Paul Smith found it, trimmed the sole with neon pink and named it "Robert". The Robert costs £300; chappals cost £15 or less. No wonder Pakistan's Dawn newspaper this week reported on a petition against this restyling of a classic. Paul Smith now says the shoe is "inspired by the Peshawari chappal" – and no longer calls it Robert.

"Inspired by" is a great catch-all for fashion, a trope that suggests reappropriation is as natural as breathing. There is some truth in that. It would be a hard job to unpick the cultural heritage of your own daily wardrobe. The genealogy of even a pair of jeans is contested, reaching back through those worn by manual workers in California courtesy of Levi Strauss & Co, to trousers worn by sailors in Genoa, and earlier depictions of workwear in Italian paintings; the fabric itself may have been made in Nimes.

Footwear seems to be particularly susceptible to restyling and reselling: consider moccasins, Chinese slippers, cowboy boots, espadrilles, Uggs, Ferragamo's famous "kimo" shoe (a take on the Japanese tabi), Swedish Hasbeens, Capri thongs and even Birkenstocks. Every category of clothing can be repurposed and upcycled, from rosaries and "slave" bangles (a Diana Vreeland find) through so-called "Gypsy" earrings, ponchos, laundry bags and fishermen's tunics. Perhaps what matters is not so much the taking as the crediting – or lack of it.

Here are five examples of western fashion mavens freely helping themselves to inspiration.

Keffiyeh

The chequered Palestinian headscarf became a hit western trend in 2007 after an embroidered version featured on the Balenciaga catwalk and subsequently went on sale for a little under £3,000. Urban Outfitters initially marketed it as "an antiwar woven scarf". Topshop went for the less complicatedly offensive "tablecloth scarf". All the while the only Palestinian keffiyeh factory was going bust.

Kaftans

It is easy to forget that kaftans have a clothing function in addition to offering a glamorous cover-up to throw over a bikini. Net-a-porter sells 95 styles. Roberto Cavalli's costs over £3,000. It is the hot-weather equivalent of the pashmina.

Masai beads

Masai beads … part of your wardrobe? Photograph: Peter Adams/Corbis

Western designers love beadwork by the Maasai people of Tanzania and Kenya. Ralph Lauren had a summer Masai collection in 1997 featuring beaded dresses and jewellery. The same year Alexander McQueen used Masai beadwork. And John Galliano's "Masai" collars for Dior still sell for over £1,000 in the vintage market.

Laundry bags

In autumn 2006 Marc Jacobs sent models down the Louis Vuitton catwalk with checked laundry bags, stamped with the Louis Vuitton logo. The bag cost around £1,200 – a fashion joke about the power logos exert over good sense.